The Challenge

Holl’s Chocolates is a family-owned business that specializes in creating traditional Swiss chocolates. Their commitment to creating authentic Swiss chocolates grows out of the experiences of three generations of Swiss trained chocolatiers.

Before Holl’s implemented the Minisoft solution, orders printed on three consumables: a traditional 4x6 shipping label printed on a Zebra thermal printer, a letter-sized packing slip printed on a laser printer,
and a personalized gift card printed on the same laser printer drawing card stock from the second tray. After these documents finished printing, they were manually matched, the shipping label applied to the package, and the other two documents placed inside the package. With a shipping process that used three consumables, two printers and was labor intensive, Holl’s decided to look for an alternative approach for order fulfillment.

The Solution

After researching various process improvement solutions, Holl’s selected Minisoft eFORMz and the DuplexPackSlip laser label solution to streamline their shipping and fulfillment process. eFORMz would be used for the label formatting, packing list generation, gift messaging and promotional offers. eFORMz would print all of the information on a single DuplexPackSlip laser label that would be applied to the outside of the package.

DuplexPackSlip laser labels are unique two-sided, multi-use forms that allow Holl’s to incorporate the shipping label, packing list, gift message and promotion offers on a single laser label. The shipping label is printed on the front of the label, and the packing list is printed on the back of the shipping label. The personalized customer gift message and promotional offer is printed on a panel that folds under the shipping label. The complete label is applied on the outside of the package.

eFORMz is a forms and label generation solution that can capture application output from virtually any WMS, ERP or Order Management system. eFORMz quickly formats and prints the captured data to any laser or thermal printer. eFORMz features rules-based decision making that allows forms and labels to be generated dynamically. These rules can be used to make decisions on what promotional offers to make or what logos and themes to print.

Holl’s achieved several business benefits with the DuplexPackSlip labels

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Easier Process

Every part of the shipping document (shipping label, packing list, personalized gift message and promotional offers) printed on a single laser label that was easily applied to the package.

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Saved Money

Holl’s eliminated the thermal printer that printed their shipping label. The special gift card was also eliminated as the gift message was now printed on the fold-under panel.

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Made Money

Holl’s took advantage of the fold-under panel for promotional offers and discounts that drove customers back to their website to make new purchases.

Z

Order Accuracy

eFORMz printed the appropriate packing list automatically. Warehouse packers could now simply peel and apply the label knowing that the correct packing list was on the back of each shipping label.

Bottom Line

Holl’s took advantage of eFORMz rules-based decision making capabilities to automate the sorting of their daily orders. eFORMz was set up to automatically sort orders by four different categories. Before the Minisoft solution, Holl’s sorted these orders manually, which took considerable time and was prone to errors. Using eFORMz saved time and labor while ensuring 100% accuracy for all of their orders.

Integration

Holl’s prints their shipping labels using their Nexternal web client. An eFORMz virtual printer was installed and configured to run on the shipping station to capture the shipping labels. Once captured these shipping labels are placed in a designated directory.

eFORMz processes the shipping label and extracts the tracking number. eFORMz calls a web service provided by Nexternal using the tracking number as the parameter. Next, the web service returns the order information as XML. eFORMz processes the XML and parses the gift message and packing slip. eFORMz also captures the seasonal message image provided by Holl’s and places it on the DuplexPackSlip laser label.

Holl’s processes the day’s orders each morning. They batch shipping labels from Nexternal. eFORMz processes each label and based on the order information, creates an XML file in a specific directory. Orders are sorted by the following categories:

• Orders with any item with a SKU beginning with “CU”.
• Any order with a ship to state designated in a text file in the eFORMz directory. This is managed by Holl’s and contains a list of States that need heat protective packaging.
• Any order with either multiple line items or a single line item with a quantity greater than three.
• All other orders.

After the orders are sorted into these categories, Holl’s copies the XML files of the orders they want the warehouse to process into a print directory. eFORMz then picks up the XML files and prints the DuplexPackSlip laser labels.

In Their Own Words

“The DuplexPackSlip laser label solution simplified our fulfillment process. Everything required to fulfill an order is now printed on a single label that is easily applied to the package. The label allows us to incorporate personalized gift messaging and promotional offers that have boosted website visits leading to significant increases in our on-line sales. DuplexPackSlip labels are allowing us to ship smarter and sell more.”